During the company’s second quarter earnings conference call, GameStop said that it was “very excited to be selling” the PSP Go. GameStop Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing Tony Bartel made the seemingly counter-intuitive statement today, but said that a number of factors will make carrying the PSP Go worthwhile for the company.
While it is true that the PSP Go’s digitial format seemingly pushes GameStop out of the picture, instead, Bartel pointed to the PlayStation Network cards that will be sold at GameStop as one of the big reasons he’s excited for the PSP Go’s launch. Bartel believes that the cards will drive traffic to GameStop’s stores, helping drive sales in other segments of their business. Additionally, he sees the PSP Go as a driver for used games sales, as players with the current UMD-powered PSPs convert to the PSP Go and trade in their disc based games. The company reported that their used-game sale margins were in the 48-50 percent range.
Bartel briefly commented on the outlook GameStop has for the portable unit, saying that the pre-orders have been rising.
